Page:Marriageinhousev00okesrich.djvu/9

cause he knew that it is the joining together of two sinners and not two Angels. What holy inspiration possessed the man and wife who arm-in-arm stepped to and fro the house of God?.

In Nigeria we observe that, before any house of God can be made a house for marriage purposes it must be duly licensed by the Governor; and although such a place of worship can make marriage a "holy estate" etc., yet it has not the power to decide the case of what it has made. The Court has power to grant divorce at the suit of the husband or at the suit of the wife on proof of such crimes recognised by the Court. Then Holy Matrimony, or Holy estate becomes not only unholy but also dishonourable.

Historians do not tell us that Mark (the bridegroom) was that day in Frock-coat and Top-hat, and Ruth in English bridal attire walking arm-in-arm through the courts of the Temple. But that they both wore crowns during the ceremony in the upper room, and that Mark, after dark, "among the youngmen called the children of the bride-chamber in festive attire with a bright turban on his head, as he was about to meet his bride and take her to his father's house, and that Ruth, "clad in white robe clasped round the waist with a beautiful girdle, veiled from head to foot, and on her flowing hair she wore a myrtle crown, and the village maidens round her, sang and played with their timbrels as they joined the procession."

Can the reader tell us what just claim has worldly affair in the House of the Lord? If in licensed places of worship, marriage is an holy estate, etc., then the husband has right to assert his conjugal